§ Statement of Purpose

The View from 1776 presents a framework to understand present-day issues from the viewpoint of the colonists who fought for American independence in 1776 and wrote the Constitution in 1787. Knowing and preserving those understandings, what might be called the unwritten constitution of our nation, is vital to preserving constitutional government. Without them, the bare words of the Constitution are just a Rorschach ink-blot that politicians, educators, and judges can interpret to mean anything they wish.

"We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, to the Officers of the First Brigade, Third Division, Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798.

§ Books to Read

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

A Liberal-Progressive Abstraction: Caring For The Little Guy

Liberal-progressives are fond of grand, sweeping state-planning projects, conceived in abstraction by academic theorists. Their preference is for betting the house on one roll of the dice, for example, with Obamacare. No incremental, careful tests for them.

Still, so-called urban renewal projects, though on a smaller scale, command liberal-progressive planners’ attention. Why miss an opportunity to destroy a neighborhood and wipe out a few thousand local businesses?

Such depredations can be imposed in the name of “caring,” for an abstraction known as “the people.” Because “the people” is an abstraction, misery inflicted in real life is not on the radar screen of liberal-progressive academics. In Nancy Pelosi’s assessment, people will learn to love the works of Big Brother after they’ve been exposed to them long enough and after Democrat/Socialist political orators have explained why they really love Big Brother.

The late Jane Jacobs, ironically regarded as a liberal-progressive until late in her life, was a voice of sanity against Big Brother